Irish Priest's Tale Stirs Furor About AIDS and Unprotected Sex

By JAMES F. CLARITY

Published: September 14, 1995

DUBLIN, Sept. 13—
A Roman Catholic parish priest has stirred a wave of national concern by asserting that an Irishwoman infected with the AIDS virus sought to avenge her condition by deliberately having unprotected sex with dozens of Irishmen in the south of the country and -- in an assertion that the medical authorities doubt -- transmitting the virus to 14 of them.

Whatever the facts of the case, it has raised a furor about AIDS that the country has never encountered before. AIDS in Ireland is at about the same level as in other European countries, moderate by comparison with the United States or Africa.

"I haven't seen anything like it," said Sharon Oye, director of the Dublin AIDS Alliance. "It's quite incredible that there has been such a mania. The mania is media driven, but it is expressing concerns of the people."

With his statement about the case, saying it was intended to alert the community to the risk of AIDS, the Rev. Michael Kennedy, a priest in the southern coastal town of Dungarvan, has drawn scores of Irish and British reporters and sound and lighting technicians seeking the victims and the unidentified woman.

The story has been prominent on national television and on the front pages of all Irish newspapers, with the tabloids publishing headlines like "Last Days of AIDS Avenger" and "Save Us From AIDS Hell."

Hundreds have called radio shows expressing fear, anger and both sympathy and condemnation of the woman and of the way Father Kennedy disclosed the situation -- at Mass last Saturday and Sunday. Father Kennedy's superior, Bishop William Lee, has criticized the use of the pulpit to publicize the situation.

Government health officials have said that because female-to-male sexual transmission of H.I.V. is difficult, they seriously doubt that the woman could have directly infected as many men as the priest has estimated: 14 men who have asserted testing positive for the AIDS virus, and possibly 50 or 60 more.

Father Kennedy gave this account: In January he was told by a young man that a woman with whom he had sexual relations for several months told him that she had AIDS. Four other young men said the same. The priest visited the woman several times, trying to persuade her to get medical help.

"The girl herself said that she went out of her way to do the best she could to spread it," Father Kennedy recalled. "She refused to allow anyone to wear condoms. The motive was to try to spread the virus."

He said the woman, who was well educated and had independent means to support herself in the seaside town, had told him that she received the virus from an English drug addict. Eventully, she went to a London clinic, where she is now dying, he said. He has refused to name her or the infected men.

Ms. Oye, of the Dublin AIDS Alliance, said that in Ireland, 1,570 people had tested positive for the virus and 484 were afflicted with the disease. She said she believed that because many people hide their illness, the true level is two or three times higher. Since the late 1980's, 249 people have died of AIDS.

"Because in the 80's we never saw the huge epidemic everybody believed would happen, that there would be an epidemic in the country, people thought it could never happen to them," she said. "But now people are concerned and upset. Our phones are jumping. One positive thing is that people are now talking about H.I.V. and sex, and people want a clearer account of what is happening and information on safe sex."